Rates Slashed Again at AARP Financial Savings Center
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POSTED
ON BY Ken Tumin
AARP Financial Savings Center cut the rates today on both its High Yield Savings account and its Jumbo Secure Money Market account. The new yield is 3.50% APY for both.
The yield had been 4.05% APY for both. For those who already have accounts, the new rate may not immediately apply to you, but it probably will fairly soon. When the rates were slashed on May 24th, readers had reported being told that the old rates would apply to existing customers for probably at least 30 days. This turned out to be too optimistic. Within two weeks, the rates for existing customers were lowered to equal the new-account rates.
Here's a summary of the rate changes over the last couple of months:
I was afraid these rates would not hold. Readers found many other Waterfield/Affinity related banking centers on the web which includes the well-known UFB Direct. I reported the yields offered by all of these banking centers in this May 21st post. There were none that had yields of 4% or higher. Most had yields around 3%. So it seemed unlikely that the AARP Financial Savings Center would be any different over the long term.
Alliant Credit Union's savings account is now clearly on top with a 4% APY. This should at least hold through June.(see my Alliant review).
For more details about AARP Financial Savings Center and the the savings and money market accounts, please refer to the following past posts:
Thanks to all the readers for noting this change.
The yield had been 4.05% APY for both. For those who already have accounts, the new rate may not immediately apply to you, but it probably will fairly soon. When the rates were slashed on May 24th, readers had reported being told that the old rates would apply to existing customers for probably at least 30 days. This turned out to be too optimistic. Within two weeks, the rates for existing customers were lowered to equal the new-account rates.
Here's a summary of the rate changes over the last couple of months:
Date High Yield Jumbo Secure
Savings Account Money Market Account
5/02/08 4.50% APY 4.75% APY (first reported)
5/24/08 4.05% APY 4.05% APY
6/14/08 3.50% APY 3.50% APY
I was afraid these rates would not hold. Readers found many other Waterfield/Affinity related banking centers on the web which includes the well-known UFB Direct. I reported the yields offered by all of these banking centers in this May 21st post. There were none that had yields of 4% or higher. Most had yields around 3%. So it seemed unlikely that the AARP Financial Savings Center would be any different over the long term.
Alliant Credit Union's savings account is now clearly on top with a 4% APY. This should at least hold through June.(see my Alliant review).
For more details about AARP Financial Savings Center and the the savings and money market accounts, please refer to the following past posts:
- Research into AARP Financial Savings Center
- Update on AARP Financial Savings Center
- Overview of the AARP Financial Savings Center
Thanks to all the readers for noting this change.